RailRiders attendance rises as fans return to minor league baseball parks
Oct. 6—The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders drew more fans in fewer dates than last year and saw attendance improve more than all but four teams in its league, figures show.
The Triple-A minor league baseball affiliate of the New York Yankees produced paid attendance of 336,162 in the just completed season, up from 331,286 in 2022, or 1.5%.
In 68 dates — seven games were postponed by weather or Canadian wildfire smoke — the RailRiders averaged 4,944 paid fans, up from 4,666 in 71 dates in 2022, or 6% higher.
In the 20-team International League, only the Norfolk Tides (15.8%), Gwinett Stripers (9.8%) and Durham Bulls (7%) and Toledo Mud Hens (6.4%) grew more in average attendance, according to a Times-Tribune analysis of figures provided by a Major League Baseball spokesman.
The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Philadelphia Phillies affiliate, who led the league in attendance in 2023 with 567,322, saw 4.2% growth.
Overall, the RailRiders ranked fourth from the bottom among the 20 teams, though many teams above them play in larger markets. International League attendance grew by 1.3% to 8.6 million.
"Obviously, in 2021, we had pod seating, we had limited seating, social distancing for the first month of the season," said Adam Marco, the RailRiders director of communications and broadcaster. "So that really skewed everything. And then it's a comfortability. People wanting to be in public and wanting to be close to other people. I think it took us all some time for the world to readjust."
COVID-19 canceled all Minor League Baseball games in 2020, and teams gradually reopened stadiums in 2021 as the pandemic subsided.
In 2019, the last season before the pandemic, the RailRiders averaged 5,885 fans over 70 dates. That means their average attendance this year stood at 84% of what it was pre-pandemic. Of the 17 current International League teams that played in the same city in 2019, only the Charlotte Knights (81.7%), Louisville Bats (79.5%) and Memphis Redbirds (65.5%) did worse than that.
Marco said the RailRiders sold out the stadium with 10,000 fans July 4, typically a great day for minor league teams. The team also did well — 8,322 paid — on Aug. 12, when Kate Flannery, who played Meredith on the Scranton-based TV show, "The Office," attended the game. A throwback hat giveaway and an appearance by The Tag Team, the group behind the hit song, "Who Let the Dogs Out?", drew 7,988.
"I think that's an event that we'll be able to build off of and do more like that with some three or post game DJs or concerts or musicians in addition to the show of the baseball game," Marco said.
Actual attendance at RailRiders games this season sometimes looked smaller than announced paid attendance. Marco declined to provide actual attendance figures, citing a baseball-wide policy of providing only paid attendance.
The RailRiders ranked first in the league in road attendance with their games in other stadiums drawing 479,978. That was good for an average of 6,575 in 73 dates, second only to the Syracuse Mets, who averaged 6,796 in 72 dates, according to figures Marco provided.
Kevin Reichard, founder and publisher of Ballpark Digest, which tracks attendance at sporting events, said Minor League Baseball, because it has fewer teams, will never return to the record attendance of the past, but the improvement reflected a trend in all forms of entertainment.
"No COVID equals more people in the stands," Reichard said.
Since Triple-A baseball began in this market in 1989, the top single season attendance remains 580,908 in 2007. That was the first year the local team was affiliated with the Yankees.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.
